


Lewis Has A Boyfriend

by Liroki



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Gay Male Character, M/M, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-18 23:27:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11301033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liroki/pseuds/Liroki
Summary: Carter Young is an American 19-year-old who just got hired as an editor for the Yogscast. Instantly, Carter is accepted into the Yogscast family and befriends all of them. But for his raven-haired boss, is friendship enough?





	1. The Tour

**Author's Note:**

> Before it starts, this is my first ever story, so reviews are appreciated. Also, this story is about a gay relationship, so if you don't like that, don't read this.

Lewis sighed as he looked at the time on his phone. Again. He was waiting for his and Simon’s new editor, who was very late. Lewis wasn’t really that mad as he understood that this new editor was moving from America, and the change of home could make anyone late. Besides, he liked the cool breeze running through the UK, it’s a perfect escape from the heat taking over Yogtowers.

Lewis put his phone back in his pocket and swiveled his head around the streets surrounding the office, looking for his new employee. From the Skype calls, Lewis knew what the young man looked like. For some reason, the appearance of him had been burned into Lewis’ memory, and Lewis could definitely pick him out in a crowd. The name of the new editor was Carter. Carter Young. He had golden blonde hair, ocean blue eyes, and snow-white skin.

Lewis, however, could find no one of that description in the immediate area. At least, not until he turned to see a young man around nineteen years old with a satchel sprinting towards Yogtowers. Lewis sees the light from the sun making this man’s blonde hair shimmer and instantly knows that this is his new editor. Lewis watches the man run up to Yogtowers, but his foot falters when he hits it against a newly formed crack in the pathway leading to Yogtowers.

Before Lewis can even think, he is running to where Carter tripped and manages to catch him before he hits the ground. Lewis’ arms wrap around Carter’s lower back, and Carter’s arms wrap themselves around Lewis in a desperate attempt to catch something to hold on to and his head lands on Lewis’ shoulder. To anyone who happened to be passing by this scene, it would look more like the two men were sharing a romantic hug rather than Lewis trying to save his new employee.

Carter lifts his head up hesitantly and looks at the man who saved him from falling and his eyes widen when he sees Lewis staring down at him. Quickly, he unwraps his arm from around Lewis and stands up straighter. Hesitantly, Lewis lets go of his grasp on Carter, then takes a step back. Another striking feature about Carter is his height. Most people Lewis meets are slightly taller than him, or extremely taller than him, but Carter looked to be the exact same height as Lewis.

“Um, I-thank you, Lewis,” Carter says, stumbling over his words. “I’m so, so sorry that I’m late.”

“That’s alright,” Lewis assures him. Lewis then gestures to the crack in the ground that Carter tripped over. “Besides, I can tell that you tried your best to get here on time.”

Carter blushes a bright red, but manages to smile. “Okay. Uh, thank you again, for catching me, I mean.”

Lewis nods, and the two are left in awkward silence. Lewis rubs his eyes and gestures for Carter to follow him inside the new Yogtowers. “Come with me, please. I’ll give you the tour.”

Carter nods and follows Lewis close behind through the entrance into his new workplace. Lewis pushes the button to call the lift and begins his introductory speech to Carter. “So, as you probably know, we have moved offices.”

Carter nods. Lewis continues, “We decided that with the bigger space for the editors that we could handle making space for one more, that’s where you come in. Also, mine and Simon’s main editor, Collin, has been working extra hard just to give us his normal quality of editing these days, so your official role is to assist him in editing our videos, really. However, both of you will still be doing almost the same amount of work.”

The lift arrived on their floor, and Lewis ushered Carter in with a hand on his back after Carter looked hesitant about entering. Lewis smiled, “Don’t be nervous. You have just as much right as me to be here.”

“It’s not that,” Carter shakes his head. “It’s just… I’ve looked up to you guys for years now, and I’m finally going to meet you all.” A horrified expression suddenly crosses his face, “There’s not going to be like a welcome party as soon as we get up there, right? Because that is absolutely horrifying.”

Lewis shakes his head and pushes the button that will take them to the Yogtowers office. “No, no, no. Although, we will probably be seeing all of the people who are not currently recording.”’  
Carter exhales, but doesn’t completely let go of his scared demeanor. The doors of the lift open after the audible ding to reveal the bright orange lobby of the Yogscast floor. Lewis leads Carter out of the lift to the center of the room.

Lewis points at to doors to the right of them, “That door on the left there is mainly used for storage, we mostly keep the expensive stuff that is newly arrived in there. And the one on the right is like a fire escape, so you know, don’t open that unless it’s a real emergency.”

Carter nods, “Okay. I’m sure I’ll remember.”

“Good.” Lewis gestures to the open doorway in front of them and a door locked by a keypad to the left of the lift. “Which way do you want to go first?”

“Which way leads to where?” 

“The open door leads to the recording rooms and the editors’ office; the locked door leads to the kitchen and the area where the rest of us do our work when we’re not recording videos. But either way we go is just a circle we can follow. The way through the door, though, leads to all of the Yogscast that aren’t recording or editing faster.”

“I think I’d like to save that for last, if you don’t mind. I’m still kind of nervous.”

Lewis chuckles, “Sure, sure. Follow me.”

Lewis sped through the tour of the recording rooms, the live stream room, the games night room, and the storage walls. Occasionally, there would be someone from the Yogscast recording and Lewis would wave through the small windows in the door. Carter and him would make small talk in between Lewis’ explanations of the different uses of the rooms in Yogtowers. Lewis found out that he enjoyed talking with the American man because Carter was both intelligent and hopeful for his future life, which is often a very rare combination.

On the way to the editing room, Lewis and Carter bump into Simon. Simon realizes instantly who Carter is, “Hello. It’s nice to finally meet outside of a monitor.”

Carter smiles, “It’s nice to meet you too.”

Lewis steps into the conversation, “I’m just taking him around the office right now. If you need him he’ll probably be in the editors’ office for the rest of the day.”

Simon nods and says to Carter, “See you around. Again, it was nice to meet you.”

“You too. Again.” Carter says. Simon laughs and walks back to his office.

“It’s true,” Carter said when Simon was behind his office door. “He is very nice.”

Lewis chuckles, “Come on, I still have to show you your office.”

Finally, the last stop on the upper level of the Yogscast floor, was the editors’ office, and more importantly, Carter’s new office. Lewis walked into the carpeted area and got everyone’s attention to introduce Carter to all of them. The editors all new that they would be getting a new coworker, but knew nothing about who they were or what they looked like, so Carter had all eyes on him. He didn’t really mind much, though.

So he must only be nervous around famous people, Lewis figured out.

Lewis walked over to Collin, who sits at the front line of desks, and introduces Carter to him. The computer next to Collin was cleared for Carter so that he and Collin can work better together. Lewis promises to return with Carter after showing him the kitchen and commons area. As the two leave, Carter puts the satchel he was carrying on his chair.

“Ready for this?” Lewis asks Carter before they take the few steps down to the commons area.

All Carter says is, “I hope.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not like I’m going to have you stand in front of everyone and introduce yourself.”

“Well, that’s a relief at least. But what I’m more worried about is just actually seeing them, and them looking at me. It feels so nerve racking.”

Lewis chuckles at his nervousness, and reaches forward, gripping Carter’s wrist in an encouraging manner. Carter looks in Lewis’ eyes and blushes. The physical contact lasts only a second, but Lewis starts to realize what his gesture could be taken as. However, Lewis says nothing, not wanting to make the situation awkward. 

Lewis lead Carter down the steps into the commons area where the rest of the Yogscast is working. No one turned to face Lewis and Carter as they were all too busy in their work. That did not, however, mean that there was no loud talking between people, making it hard to hear anything else. Carter looked around the room, taking in the storage shelves, the security monitor of the lobby, and boxes upon boxes of unpacked office equipment. When he is looking over the sea of people at their computers, his eyes linger on Duncan, Sjin, Kim, Hannah, and Tom Clark.

“I guess this place isn’t fully functioning yet, is it?” Carter says, looking away from the people and back at the unpacked boxes.

“No, but we have the bare necessities so that we can record, and work, and occasionally have some fun. We should be completely unpacked by the end of the month, assuming everything goes according to schedule.”

Carter nods in understanding, but does not say anything. Lewis gestures forward, “The kitchen is our last stop for today.”

“Lead the way.”

“As you wish,” Lewis says before leading Carter, again, to the kitchen that connects to the commons area. The kitchen is much bigger than the one in the old office. It is also home to many very expensive-looking machines and household appliances. As they step inside, Turps seemed to have been walking out.

“Oh, Lewis,” Turps exclaims. “I was just about to come get you, I finished hanging up the awards on the wall. Come have a look, tell me what you think.”

Lewis takes another couple of steps inside the kitchen to look at the YouTube awards littered all over the back wall of the kitchen. All of the Yogscast’s golden awards are surrounded by all of the many silver awards. Lewis and Carter bask in the glory that the Yogscast has been able to achieve, and standing next to them, Turps wears a smile for his hard work.

“Wow,” Carter simply states.

Turps seems to finally realize his presence with that word. “Oh, hi. Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“This is Carter, Turps,” Lewis tells him. “You know, the new editor we hired. The one that you saw in multiple Skype calls.”

“I do remember that, yes,” Turps says, then turns his attention to Carter, ”I just didn’t notice you until now.”

“That’s okay,” Carter assures him.

“Well, anyway,” Lewis clears his throat, “Good job on the wall. I like how you displayed.”

“Yeah, it’s so cool,” Carter tells him.

“Thanks,” Turps smiles. “Now I better get going back to work.”

When Turps is out of the room, Lewis walks over to the sink, joking as he says, “I don’t know if you watched the tour of this office that Turps put up on his channel, but we have a water tap that can dispense boiling hot water, or ice-cold water.” Then, for dramatic effect, he added, “Instantly.”

“I did watch that, and I have to say, he seemed pretty proud of that feature.” Carter says with a smile.

Lewis nods, smiling. “I think that’s the end of the tour. I guess you can go back to Collin, he’ll probably be having you do work instantly.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Carter says. He then points at the door leading back out to the lobby. “That goes back to the lobby, right?”

Lewis nods, confused. Carter continues, “I think I’m going to skip seeing all of those people in the room, and just take the long way.”

“You are so timid,” Lewis jokes.

“I just feel very, very scared and nervous around them.”

“Whatever.” Lewis jokes, shaking his head. 

Carter turns to leave, but Lewis suddenly grabs his hand. Carter turns to him for an explanation, looking down at their joined hands. Carter blushes again at the sight. Lewis lets go of his hand, this time, he is blushing as well.

“I forgot to tell you. That door needs a code to come back through it,” Lewis explains. He tells Carter the code that will be accepted always and not just sometimes-which are the codes given to people who rent the recording rooms for a few hours.

“Okay, thank you. I’ll see you around.”

Lewis watches Carter leave through the door. He turns to go to the commons area when he remembers the questions he’s had ever since he met Carter: Why is it so easy to forget personal space with him? And why do neither of them seem to mind too much?


	2. First Day

“And the last thing Simon wanted on this video was a laugh track at the joke Duncan made at the end,” Collin tells Carter, reading off of the list of ideas from Lewis and Simon.

“Is there already one on this computer, or do I have to find one online really quick?”

“I already went through and downloaded some generic sound effects,” Collin says, taking the computer mouse from Carter, and searching through the different files. As he did this, he began muttering, “It should be somewhere in your sounds folder.” Collin clicked on the folder labeled ‘Sounds’ and highlighted one of the many sound files in the folder. “There it is.”

“Oh, perfect,” Carter says. “Thank you for that.”

Carter drags the laugh track into the editing screen and begins working on making the laughing sound fit into the video properly. He cut the track down to two seconds, then lowered the volume of it, before putting the track where it was supposed to go in the video. Collin sat next to him, and watched as he expertly fixed the laugh track to fit into the video properly. Once it was placed, the total time it took for Carter to edit it was only thirty seconds.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to pry, but have you taken classes in editing or anything, because you’re like an expert at this.”

“Oh, no,” Carter shakes his head. “I mean, yes, I’ve edited videos before, but no, I haven’t taken classes. I had a friend who was doing YouTube, and I was the one who edited his videos, and sometimes made his thumbnails.”

“That’s cool,” Collin tells him. 

“Yeah. But I haven’t done that in about a year because he turned into an asshole when he got 20,000 subscribers. Thought that that meant he was better than me, and the rest of us ‘common people’,” Carter shakes his head.

“That sucks. But at least now, you don’t have to go through the excruciating process of learning what button does what, and how to reformat sound and video.”

“True.”

“More importantly for me, I can trust you with editing videos on your own right away,” Collin smiles.

Carter laughs, “Please do. Lewis told me that you were trying your best but you were always overworking yourself.”

“Yeah, it’s been rough lately. But I’ve been able to catch up since we’ve moved here because recording has been slow.”

“Hm. Easy job, easy life. Am I right?” Carter says as he stretches his arms above his head. 

“I think we are going to get along quite well,” Collin says in between his laughter.

“Me too.”

\+ + +

Carter was walking out of the men’s bathroom when he sees Simon talking to Duncan and Sjin. The three are near the stairs that lead up to other recording rooms and Simon’s office. Directly in front of the fastest way back to Carter’s office.

Carter takes a deep breath and brushes the palms of his hands against his jeans before he begins walking to the stairs. As he passes the trio, Carter makes eye contact with Simon and waves quickly as he passes, not checking to see if Simon waves back. When Carter puts his right foot on the first step of the stairs, he feels a hand placed on his shoulder.

He turns to see that it was Duncan’s hand. “Hey, the only recording rooms you can rent out are down here. You’re not allowed up there.”

“Uh…” Carter’s mind blanks as he tries to come up with a response.

“Calm down Duncan, that’s Carter; the new editor Lewis and I hired to help out Collin,” Simon says, coming to Carter’s rescue.

“Oh!” Duncan says, an apologetic and regretful look taking over his face. “Sorry about that.”

“No, it’s okay,” Carter assures him. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Why have you got an American accent?” Sjin asks, his arms covering his chest.

“Because I’m from America.”

“Yeah, we had him delivered straight from America,” Simon jokes. Duncan laughs and Sjin smiles at the joke. 

“How come you didn’t get me an editor from America?” Sjin asks.

“Because most of them are absolute shit. You have to dig around for a while before you get one like Carter here.” Simon says, sending everyone into a fit of laughter again.

Duncan asks in between his laughing, “Did you seriously move here just to work for us?”

“No. Yes, I mean… kind of? I was already planning on moving here, but I thought since I was moving to where you guys are and you were hiring that I would try to get a job here, and it just so happens that I did get the job,” Carter explains, all the nervousness he felt before was fading away.

“You were the lucky one,” Simon says. “Whenever we have job openings there are close to one hundred people that apply.”

“Wasn’t there one time where we had five hundred CV’s come in?” Sjin asks.

“Yeah, that was mental!” Duncan exclaims. “There was only like two jobs open too.”

“Sounds like it was crazy,” Carter agrees. “Well, I’m going to go back to work now.”

“At least someone’s going to,” Simon jokes. Carter chuckles as he walks up the stairs. 

When he does get back to the editors’ office, Carter slides back into his desk chair next to Collin. I don’t know why I was so worried, Carter thinks as he begins work on the fourth video for the day. Meeting Duncan and Sjin wasn’t so bad, he knows now that his anxiousness is nothing to pay attention to.

\+ + +

Carter walks into the kitchen with the intention to get Collin and himself drinks when he falters in his step when he sees Lewis in the room as well, laughing with Duncan. It’s late at night now, and most of the Yogscast have already gone home, so seeing these two is surprising to Carter, to say the least. Although, it looks like Duncan is about to leave because he has on his jacket and a backpack.

Carter resumes walking to the drink fridge, making eye contact with Lewis for a second as he does. He pulls out a bottle of water for himself, and a bottle filled with cold oolong tea that Collin keeps in the refrigerator for himself. When Carter closes the refrigerator door, Lewis is standing there, still looking over at Duncan. It scared Carter and he yelps putting his hand to his chest breathing heavy. 

“Are you okay?” Lewis asks, turning his attention to Carter.

Carter nods his head, but does not say anything. Lewis looks back to Duncan when he knows that Carter is well, “Duncan, have you met Carter yet?”

“Yeah, we met when Sjin and I got back from lunch. I thought he was someone renting our stuff that was trying to use the recording rooms upstairs.”

Lewis starts laughing loudly, “No way! Oh, my God, that is hilarious!”

“He’s not lying. I thought I got in trouble for a second,” Carter tells him.

“You should’ve seen his face,” Duncan laughs. “Good thing Simon was there to tell me who he is, I don’t know if I would’ve believed him if he told me he was the new editor himself.”

“Why not?” Carter asks, somewhat offended.

“Because you look like you’re fifteen,” Lewis says, still laughing.

“I do not!” Carter insists with a smile on his face.

“You totally do,” Duncan says laughing. The smile fades from his face when he looks at the digital clock hanging on the wall. “Oh, shit! I really have to go now.”

Duncan speed walks out of the kitchen and into the lobby through the locked door. Lewis calls out to him as he leaves, “See you tomorrow.”

Carter starts walking out of the kitchen and back to his office, saying, “I have to get back to Collin.”

“What are you two still doing here this late?”

Carter stops walking and turns to Lewis, “Together, we’ve already edited eight videos, we’re trying to ten tonight so that we only have six altogether tomorrow. After that, we should be caught up with editing.”

“You’ve only been here for a day and, already, you’ve drastically increased the video output, and judging from what Duncan said, you got over your fear of meeting new people,” Lewis says amazed.

“So…?” Carter asks with a smile on his face.

“So…” Lewis begins. “Where have you been all my life?”

Carter blushes, “In another country.”

Carter doesn’t wait for a response and walks back to his office with Collin. He hands Collin the bottle of tea when he arrives back at his desk.

“Thank you,” Collin says, taking the tea from Carter.

“You’re welcome.” Carter says, thinking back to how amazed Lewis was when he found out about Carter’s accomplishments. The blush resurfaced on his face, and Carter shook his head, trying to focus on his work.

\+ + +

Carter waved goodbye to Collin and watched as he walked to his car and drove away. Carter sighed and turned around to look at the Yogtowers building, basking in its appearance. Finally, he gets the chance, not only to meet, but to work with the people that he has idolized for years. Being able to impress Lewis on the first day creates a feeling that Carter may never feel in his life again. 

The sound of the door to Yogtowers opening pulls Carter out of his thoughts and he sees Lewis walking out of the building. His black leather jacket is on his shoulders, tightly zipped and buttoned up. The night is a cold one, ignoring the clear and sunny sky that appeared during the daytime, and Carter regrets not taking his jacket today.

Lewis turns around after locking the door to Yogtowers, and is surprised to see Carter standing there, looking at him. “Were you waiting for me?”

Carter blushes and smiles, he says, “No. I was just basking in the glory that is Yogtowers.”

“Yeah?” Lewis says. “I would’ve thought you already left.”

“I was just about to.”

“Mm.” Lewis looks at the ground then back to Carter. “You know, I’ve been thinking. Why were you so scared of meeting everyone, but you seemed fine with me? I would’ve thought it would be worse with me since I’m in the Yogscast, and your boss.”

Carter takes a deep breath, breaking eye contact with Lewis. He’s silent for a minute before says, “I don’t know. It’s just… easier with you.”

“What’s easier?”

“Everything,” Carter answers. “Laughing, talking… just everything.” Both men blush and avoid making eye contact with each other. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make this awkward.”

“No, don’t worry about it,” Lewis says, forcing himself to ignore the blushing in his cheeks and look at Carter. “I guess I can feel something like that with you too.”

Carter looks back at Lewis, “Really?”

“Yes,” Lewis simply states.

Carter smiles, “I’m going to go home now. Good night.”

Lewis watches as Carter runs off in the direction he came from this morning, holding his satchel so that it doesn’t swing as he runs. Lewis mutters to the disappearing figure, “Good night."


	3. Lewis' Game

“Turn around with your hands up!” The voice shouting into the megaphone yells at Carter.

Carter stops in his tracks, not daring to look behind him at the policeman, and raises his hands in the air. As he does, Carter drops the gun in his hands, still warm from the shot he fired minutes earlier. Shallow and shaky breaths escaped Carter as he heard the gun clatter to the ground and the multiple policeman that are approaching him with their guns pointed at him.

The male voice on the megaphone shouts again, “Good. Now put your arms behind your back.”

Carter does as instructed, and feels rough hands put handcuffs around his wrists. Carter, surprising himself, asks in a steady voice, “A little soon to break out the handcuffs, don’t you think?”

“Shut up!” The policeman tells him. “We wouldn’t even be in this situation if you hadn’t murdered _him_.”

The policeman forces Carter to his knees and turned him around so that he could look at the dead body of his former boss, Lewis Brindley. Lewis’ body is half-out of his office and half-in, his torso is on the outside and his legs are inside. Carter sighs as he’s forced to look at the dead body, his breath becoming rapid. The memory of Lewis’ death comes back painfully into Carter’s head.

 

_Lewis was just turning off his recording software when Carter came into his office. A troubled look was on his face as he closed the door. While he was closing the door, he kept facing Lewis and had one hand behind his back the entire time. Lewis was curious as to what Carter’s trouble was._

_“Carter, what’s going on? I still had the recording light on outside. Good thing we just wrapped up, right?”_

_“Right,” Carson said, chuckling nervously._

_“Is everything alright?” Lewis asked after silence filled the room._

_“No,” Carter looked down. “No, nothing’s alright.”_

_“What’s the matter?”_

_“I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to,” Carter said, finally looking back up to Lewis._

_“Didn’t want to what?” Lewis’ curiosity was quickly turning into fear. Carter didn’t say anything to answer Lewis’ question. “Carter, just tell me what the problem is and I can help you fix it?”_

_“Really?” Carter asked with a newfound joy._

_“Of course. Now, what’s the problem?”_

_“You’re still alive!” Carter spoke confidently._

_A gun appeared from behind Carter’s back, pointed straight at Lewis. Lewis only figured out what Carter meant when the gun appeared. Lewis put his hands up immediately, wishing he wasn’t still sat in his chair so that he could run at Carter._

_“Please,” Lewis pleaded. “Carter, please.”_

_“I’m sorry, friend,” Carter spoke with the same confidence._

_Carter pressed the trigger and the bullet flew from the gun towards Lewis. Lewis, in his last seconds, felt more emotions at once than he ever had in his life. Anger, betrayal, hopelessness, hate… understanding. The reason for this punishment was brought on by himself, and he only had time to chuckle before the bullet hit his abdomen._

_Lewis’ eyes bulged out and he fell from his chair, holding his abdomen where the bullet hit him. Carter sighed and looked Lewis in the eye before he turned and walked out of Lewis’ office, and started to put the gun in his back pocket. Completely content with how this little game of Lewis’ ended in his favor._

_Lewis rolled over onto his back, still clutching at his abdomen. Even if he was about to die, he couldn’t let Carter kill other people in Yogtowers. He was still on his back as he used his legs to push his body to his office door, which was still wide open, and managed to get his torso out into the hallway._

_Lewis breathed in and did his best to shout, “_ HELP! MURDER! _”_

_Carter turned around in surprise and saw Lewis halfway out of his office, and on the floor. Doors could be heard opening, voices were shouting, and footsteps were stomping towards the two. For thwarting his perfect get away, but mostly out of confusion, Carter raised his gun and shot Lewis again. This bullet finished the job the first one started, and hit Lewis directly on the top the head._

_Carter began running from Lewis when a voice stopped him. “Turn around with your hands up!”_

Carter lay in the center of the hallway with guns pointed at him from every direction. The policeman that was forcing him to look at Lewis’ corpse drags him back to his feet and marches him towards the lobby. They stop when footsteps come running towards the group, and everyone stops what they’re doing to look at the newcomer.

Simon walks up from behind the policeman with the megaphone. Anger is evident in his eyes. He yells, “Why would you do this?! Why?!”

Carter flinches at his loud words, “Simon, please-“

“Don’t you dare!” Simon yells. “Because of what you just did, I have to bail you out.”

Simon pulls a NERF gun from his pocket and shoots at Tom Clark, the one with the megaphone, and Tom falls to the ground. Simon shoots at multiple people on the police team, they all seem too focused on Tom’s death that they don’t realize their own death is coming. When the police around Carter are dead, Simon pulls him behind a wall to cover them both from the foam bullets coming their way.

“You owe me for this!” Simon tells Carter as he pushes the safety latch on the plastic handcuffs, freeing Carter.

“I know,” Carter says, rubbing the red marks around his wrists. “I lost my gun back where they are.”

“Damn it!” Simon huffs. “At least you got Lewis.”

“Yeah, but now we just gave out that we’re on the murdering team.”

“Doesn’t matter, all the people in the police team are here,” Simon points out. “If we can kill all of them we win.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Hey, you guys can’t help each other out!” Duncan’s voice yells from where the police are.

“Murderers can’t team up to murder, but they can team up to fight the police!” Simon yells back at him.

Carter nods, remembering Lewis go over the rules when he introduced the game he created to the Yogscast two days ago. There are three teams: murderers, police, and victims. The victims, which are the smallest team, have no weapons and can only run away, but can’t fight back whatsoever; they have to live their lives as they normally would. Murderers, obviously, have to murder the victims and try to get away with it and have knives along with guns; they can team up to fight the police and come up with plans, but only one person can kill a victim, and they can win either by killing all the police, or all of the victims. Police have guns only and have to try to protect the victims-without actually camping around the victims-and try to find the murderers; they can work together as much as they want. Victims are known to everyone, Lewis was one, along with Sjin, Tom Perkins, Martyn, and Craig (one of the editors) but the identities of the murderers and police are hidden to everyone but their own teams. Lewis is the first victim that has died since the game started.

Simon turns back to Carter to answer his question, “I took out enough to make this easy for everyone else on our side. What we really have to worry about is not getting arrested.”

Carter nods. If one of the murderers are arrested, they are interrogated and have to identify one other person on the murderer’s team. But if Carter and Simon die, that’s the end of that.

Simon checks from behind the wall when the police team suddenly stop firing. Simon sees that they are all just reloading and sidewalks out from behind the wall completely, his gun firing as he does. The police scatter from their positions and run away from Simon to find cover in open recording rooms. A few were able to reload their guns before Simon started shooting and are now returning fire. Simon lines up a shot and hits Hannah directly in the throat. Another shot hits Turps in the forehead. With every shot, Simon seems to take out another policeman, and the police’s bullets constantly miss.

As the action goes on, Carter looks back to where Lewis is, still lying on his stomach halfway out of his office. However, now he has his phone in his hand. He is scrolling through something, most likely twitter, looking completely uninterested by what’s going on in the hallway to his left. After a couple more minutes, and seven more police fell to Simon, Lewis looks up from his phone. Carter makes eye contact with him and he mouths ‘ _I’m sorry_ ’ to Lewis. Lewis smiles and gives him a thumbs up to let Carter know that it’s okay.

“Die!” Simon screams, making Carter jump and look back to what Simon is doing. There is only one more policeman left. Smith.

“Let’s fucking do this old western style, Simon,” Smith challenges.

“Pistols at dawn, come on,” Duncan says on the ground.

“Shut up, Duncan! You’re supposed to be dead!” Smith screams at him.

“Fuck it! Let’s do this!” Simon says, pointing his gun down at the ground and walking where Smith is.

Smith meets Simon halfway and they turn around with the backs against each other. Everyone who had already died was watching the two with their breaths held. The two take ten steps away from each other and wait with their guns in their hands pointing downwards. The two say in unison, “Draw!”

Simon and Smith turn to face each other. They raise their guns and don’t waste time aiming at the other. Both shoot at the same time and their bullets fly in opposite directions. Simon’s bullet misses Smith’s face by an inch, but Smith’s bullet hits Simon directly in the nose. Simon makes a startled and pained noise before falling to the ground dead.

“Yeah!” Smith says, throwing his gun behind his back. Ross has to roll out of the way to not get hit by the stray gun. “That’s how you fucking shoot!”

Carter steps fully out from behind the wall and pulls his hidden knife from out of his back pocket. Carter throws it at Smith, who is completely oblivious to Carter’s presence. The knife spins in the air towards Smith, and the blade hits Smith in the chest. Smith stops celebrating instantly and looks at Carter. Silently, he falls to the ground.

“Fuck!” Smith yells into the floor, making all his teammates laugh. “I forgot about Carter! God damn it!”

“You idiot,” Turps calls out to him.

“Good job Carter,” Simon tells him. “We just won.”

“Simon, what the hell was that?” Lewis asks laughing at the bodies all over the floor.

“I have no idea where that came from. I just saw Carter being arrested and I shot. I didn’t think that all the fucking police would die,” Simon tells him, then brings his attention to the police. “God, you guys suck! Not only did you all join together in one spot, which could’ve ended in a massive ambush, and it did, but you also ganged up on only _one_ murderer.”

“We didn’t know that would happen,” Hannah defends.

“It was amazing either way,” Carter says.

“I like how Carter started this and he’s the only one that actually survived,” Kim laughs.

“Yep,” Lewis says, he is suddenly behind Carter. He takes Carter’s right arm, sending warmth into both of their arms, and raises it above his head. “We have our winner here.”

Carter laughs, “And I only had to kill two people.”

“He says as he stands on a pile of bodies,” Smith jokes.

+   +   +

Carter walks out of Yogtowers and into the cold night, his satchel hanging on his shoulder. He has his phone is in his hands, scrolling through his friends’ twitter accounts. He sighs as he looks at what things have been occurring in their lives. It seemed like since he had moved to Bristol two weeks, his friends had not been saddened one bit. It’s like he didn’t seem to matter to them. But Carter knows that isn’t true. They probably did miss him, but just wanted to continue having the time of their lives in their prime years. Carter couldn’t expect them to stop their lives for him.

“I swear, you’re trying to do this on purpose,” A familiar voice says behind Carter.

Carter looks up from his phone and sees Lewis walking up to him. It dawns on Carter that while stocking his friends, he stopped walking at some point and just stood there looking at his phone. Carter turns off his phone and fully turns his body to look at Lewis.

“Doing what on purpose?”

“Standing out here, waiting until I leave.”

“I swear this just happens on accident,” Carter pleads with a blush.

“I believe you,” Lewis calms him. “What were you looking at?”

“Nothing important,” Carter says quickly to avoid the conversation of how he doesn’t think his friends care about him.

Lewis nods, “Alright. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go pick up twelve laptops.”

“Twelve? Why so many?”

“I ordered them for people that want to travel and work at the same time but don’t have one of their own.”

“But you’re picking them up this late. Why not just have them delivered?”

“The company I ordered them from doesn’t deliver. And for some reason, the only person that can pick them up is the person that ordered them because after I ordered them, I got this code that I have to tell them face-to-face,” Lewis answers. “And this was the only time that I could go. I was planning on going during lunch, but since _someone_ killed me, I couldn’t leave.”

Regret instantly fills Carter’s mind. “I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“It’s okay, I should’ve said something before you killed me. Still, I don’t know if you would’ve believed me or not.”

“I would’ve,” Carter tells him.

“How do you know?”

“Because I trust you,” Carter says. “And to make you trust me, and to say sorry, I’m going to go with you to the place where the laptops are and help you carry them back to your place.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Lewis tells him, although he really wants Carter to come with him.

“Well, I’m going to,” Carter declares.

“Okay,” Lewis says, then starts walking away from Yogtowers. He calls back to Carter, “Follow me.”

Carter speed walks to catch up to Lewis, and walks side by side with Lewis. Their arms brush against each other when he’s next to Lewis and Carter quickly pulls his arm away, and hopes that Lewis didn’t notice. His cheeks burn rose red at the warmth Lewis’ arm sends into his.

The two walk in silence towards the shop with the laptops. The only occasional conversation is when Lewis is telling Carter when to turn left or right. Carter takes the time to look around at all of the old buildings that Bristol has. When he was living in America, it was a rare sight to see a building older than forty years. Of course, that was just in the part of America where Carter lived.

Lewis was enjoying the presence of Carter while they traveled to the shop. When Carter’s arm had touched his, Lewis’ heart felt like it skipped a beat. He loved the heat that generated whenever he and Carter touched. This feeling that he felt with Carter was extremely familiar to Lewis, but he just couldn’t figure out what it was exactly. All he knew was that he liked this feeling.

Lewis looks next to him, at Carter, and watches him look around at the buildings of the city. Lewis smiles and turns back to focus on where he was going when he sees the familiar white building sat at the corner of an intersection. A huge sign hangs over the building, displaying the words: ‘The Tech Shack.’

Lewis points out the building to Carter, “There it is.”

Carter nods and remains silent as the two cross the street and walk into the building. Inside, the walls and aisles are stocked full with gaming consoles, computers, cellphones, televisions, and projectors. Carter looks around in amazement at all of the cool gadgets. Lewis pulls him along to the back of the store where the store keeps their specially ordered devices.

“Hello, how may I help?” The man at the counter asks Lewis.

“I’m here to pick up an order for Lewis Brindley,” Lewis tells him.

“And how are you spelling Brindley?” The man asks after typing something into the computer, presumably Lewis’ first name.

“B-R-I-N-D-L-E-Y.”

“Okay,” The man says, typing in Lewis’ last name. “And what is your security code.”

“Uh,” Lewis brings out a small piece of paper from his pocket and begins reading from it. “8301kP. The ‘k’ is lowercase and the ‘p’ is uppercase.”

“Very good,” The man says. “I’ll be back in a second with your order.” Lewis nods and the man walks through an opening in the wall behind him that leads to the room the store keeps special orders.

“I’m glad you came with me,” Lewis tells Carter. “Carrying twelve laptops on my own would’ve definitely ended in disaster.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Carter says with a smile.

The man returns with another employee, each of them are carrying six thing boxes that have the laptops inside them. They set the boxes on the counter and the employee that came out to help returns to the back room without saying a word. The original employee says, “Thank you for choosing the Tech Shack, enjoy your purchase.”

“Thank you,” Lewis says, then picks up one of the stacks of laptops.

Carter smiles at the man and picks up the other stack of boxes. Lewis was waiting for Carter as he picked up the laptops and caught up with him. Together, they walk out of the shop and towards Lewis’ flat. Lewis starts making conversation when they are about halfway to his flat.

“So, do you like Bristol so far?”

“Yeah! I love looking at all the old buildings made out of brick.”

“Glad you joined the Yogscast?”

“Definitely!” Carter answers instantly. “Although, I would’ve moved here either way. There’s nothing really left for me in America.”

“What do you mean?” Lewis becomes worried that Carter lived through a devastating event that ruined his life.

“If I had stayed where I was, everything would’ve been like it’s always been. A schedule that repeats every day, rarely anything spontaneous happening, no passion for the future.”

“I guess I understand that,” Lewis says. “I left Essex for more adventure, but couldn’t bring myself to go farther than Bristol. But even if I wanted to leave the country, I have too many things tying me to the UK. And I’m talking about before the Yogscast existed.”

“Yeah,” Carter nods. “I guess that’s also part of the reason I left as well, nothing tying me down.”

Lewis nods. Without thinking about the consequences of his words, he says, “I hope that I can be something to keep you here.”

Carter blushes, and his nerves keep him from continuing the conversation. How could he respond to something like that and keep the situation friendly and platonic? Carter lowers his head and just follows Lewis without talking. Lewis doesn’t pressure Carter with talking anymore and the rest of the journey is spent in silence.

When the two men do arrive at Lewis’ flat, Lewis stops outside of the complex building and turns to Carter. “Thank you for helping me. I think I can manage on my own from here.”

“You’re welcome,” Carter says, and stacks the laptops he was carrying on top of Lewis’ stack.

“Is it a far walk to your place?” Lewis asks once he balances all twelve laptops.

“Not really. It’s actually just a few streets from here.”

“Okay,” Lewis says. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night, Carter.”

Lewis walks into the building, and Carter slowly backs away from the building before he turns and starts walking towards his flat. Carter thinks back to the small touches that he and Lewis shared, the things they sometimes say to each other, and the way Carter blushes over every small thing when he’s with Lewis. Carter looks back to Lewis’ flat complex, _do I have a crush on Lewis Brindley?_


	4. Making A Video

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a little longer than the rest to put up, I wasn't really feeling this one.

Carter is sitting at his desk, putting the finishing touches the video he’s currently working on, when Lewis comes into the editors’ space. He immediately goes to Carter and sits in Collin’s empty chair, Collin went out to lunch a couple of minutes ago. Carter turns to look at Lewis, and waits for him to explain himself.

“I need you to do me a favor,” Lewis says.

“What is it?”

“Me, Sjin, Duncan, Simon, Zylus, and Tom were planning on playing GTA today, but Zylus isn’t able to do it because his dad is sick,” Lewis explains.

“Is he okay?” Carter asks, stopping work on the video.

“He should be fine,” Lewis says. “But, anyway, I asked Rythian if he could fill in for Zylus, but he was too busy with something else.”

“And?” Carter asks, already knowing exactly what Lewis was going to ask.

“And I need you to fill in for Zylus. Please.”

Carter sighs knowing that he won’t be able to say ‘no’ to Lewis, “I just need to save this video really quick.”

“Thank you,” Lewis says letting out the breath he was holding.

“Don’t mention it,” Carter says, and quickly saved the video and closes the editing software.

“Okay, come with me,” Lewis orders.

Carter stands up, and follows Lewis through the hallways of Yogtowers. Lewis stops at an empty recording room and makes Carter sit in the chair. Once seated, Lewis gives Carter a quick tutorial on how to use the microphone, how to use the recording software, and helps Carter set up his Grand Theft Auto account. Lewis also hooks up a controller so that Carter can play properly and not have to learn the keyboard controls.

Every once in a while, Lewis would reach over Carter to use the mouse to click on something. Carter’s head would touch Lewis’ chest, and their arms would touch. Both men did their best to ignore the heat generated by their touch and focus on setting up the recording properly.

When Lewis was done setting everything up, he gave Carter the Skype address so that he could talk to everyone. Lewis left the room and ran to his own office. Carter ran around the GTA map collecting the few guns his level one character was allowed to have, and accepted the invite that Lewis sent him. The members of the Yogscast made small talk before Lewis told them he was about to start the recording. Carter pushed the hotkey that would start his recording, and let Lewis begin the episode.

“Hello and welcome back to the Yogscast! Today, I am joined by Simon… Duncan… Sjin… and Tom,” Lewis introduces them, and they take turns saying hello. “Also, we are joined by mine and Simon’s new editor, Carter.”

“Hi,” Carter says.

“You may notice,” Simon cuts in. “We had him delivered from America.”

“Yeah,” Lewis laughs.

“Carter, you’ve never played this game before, right?” Sjin asks.

“I have not, no,” Carter answers.

“Hopefully you’re using a controller,” Duncan says with a chuckle.

“I am,” Carter tells him, and begins picking his car for the race.

“I recommend the Entity XF for this one guys,” Tom says.

“Entity,” Carter mutters and picks it, then changes the color to orange.

“Let’s just all pick crappy cars, and Carter picks the Entity so that he wins,” Sjin says.

“I doubt I’d win either way,” Carter says.

“You say that, but just watch as you win every single round,” Tom says, which evokes a laugh out of everyone.

The screen changes to the actual starting line with everyone in their starting positions. The camera changes angles a few times and on one of the changes, the entire map can be seen. It’s in the sky, and there are dozens of colorful tubes and ramps. The number 3 appears and begins counting backwards to zero. The word ‘Go’ flashes and Carter instantly presses the accelerate button, and his car flies past the others as he gets the starting boost.

“This looks amazing,” Simon says at the parts of the track coming up.

“It is fucking insane,” Tom hints at the track. “I absolutely love this one.”

“On a scale of 1 to 1,000, how hard is this map? 1 is as easy as possible,” Carter questions. Lewis has caught up to him now, but has not yet surpassed him for first place yet. The two have sped ahead of everyone, which was easy after Duncan got pit maneuvered by Sjin and the accident blocked Tom and Simon.

“1,000?! That’s a lot,” Simon says in a small, innocent voice.

“I’d say it’s a 400,” Tom says confidently.

“I’d have to say a solid 400,” Lewis mocks Tom’s confident voice.

“I say it’s 420 bitches,” Simon says, evoking a laugh from everyone.

“Ooooohhhhhhh,” Sjin and Tom voice together.

Lewis tries to pit maneuver Carter, but Carter pushed his brakes at the last possible second, sending Lewis flying into the barrier. Carter passes by Lewis and pushes down the acceleration button again. Carter laughs at Lewis’ failed attempt, “Nice try.”

“God damn it! Are you sure you’ve never done this before?” Lewis asks. “You’re just too good to be new.”

“Oh, thank you,” Carter says, glad that no one can see the blush on his face. “But yeah, this is the first time I’ve played this game.”

“What position are you in Carter?” Sjin asks.

“First,” Carter replies.

At the same time Carter replied, Lewis said, “He’s in first place.”

“Really?!” Sjin asks, surprised.

“See!” Tom says. “I told you, Carter’s going to be the one to win every race.”

“He’s not going to win this one, because I’m right behind him,” Lewis counters. Lewis’ car suddenly appears right behind Carter’s. Carter chuckles and looks down at the map to see that everyone else is still miles behind them.

“What happened to you guys, you’re so far behind,” Carter points out.

“We keep creating four-way collisions that we get stuck in,” Tom says.

“And all of them are Sjin’s fault,” Duncan says.

“No, fuck you!” Sjin defends. “I only did the first one.”

“No!” Simon shouts as the message ‘Angor killed Honeydew’ appears on top of the map. “Fuck you Tom!”

“I’m sorry Simon,” Tom says with a laugh.

“I’m going to pass you Carter,” Lewis says as his car’s front wheels pass Carter’s back wheels.

“No, you’re not,” Carter says with excitement in his voice.

The part of the track they’re on now has no barriers, so bumping Lewis off will be easy for Carter to pull off. Lewis gains a little more speed and inches farther up, and when his front wheels are almost passing Carter’s front wheels, Carter slams his car into Lewis’. Lewis’ car spins out of control before falling off of the track.

“No! Shit!” Lewis shouts. “I’ll be back, Carter. And this time, I’m coming for you.”

Simon sighs, exaggerated exhaustion is clear in his voice as he says, “Lewis, can you please stop flirting with our employee?”

Lewis laughs, “What are you talking about?”

Carter blushes at Simon’s words, and forgets about the race for merely a second. What was that he heard in Lewis’ voice just then? Was it nervousness? Like he’d just had a secret exposed? Or like he was being accused of something he didn’t do? Carter couldn’t tell why it was in Lewis’ voice, but he did know that if Lewis had been next to him in the race at that moment, Carter’s thoughts would’ve given Lewis the advantage to overtake Carter.

Thinking up a witty response, Carter says, “For your information, Simon, I was kind of enjoying it before you interrupted him.”

Simon laughs and says through his laughter, “I’m sorry.”

The race continues with the same banter going on between everyone. Tom, Simon, Sjin, and Duncan all stay miles behind Lewis and Carter, constantly bumping into each other, and screwing each other and each other over. Lewis and Carter fight for first place the entire time and continue, as Simon calls it, ‘flirting’ with each other, and ignore the complaining from the other four in the back.

When Lewis and Carter turn onto the final stretch of the race and can see the finish line, all noise, even from each other, is blocked off. The two are neck-and-neck, neither sure of who’s going to win. That is, until Lewis pulls ahead screaming, “Yeah! Suck it, Carter!”

“Fuck you!” Carter says, then shoots Lewis with rockets that he picked up ages ago in the race.

“No!” Lewis shouts as Carter speeds past his burning husk of a car.

“I win!” Carter says, throwing his arms in the air in real life.

“Why did I have to say that you would win?” Tom says as he finishes in third.

“Oh, my God!” Simon says as he finishes the race. “Tom, are you psychic?”

“I think I might actually be,” Tom snickers.

“He didn’t predict Carter’s rising,” Duncan says dramatically. “He predicted his own demise.”

“Ha!” Lewis laughs loudly.

“Sjin, are you going to be able to make it?” Carter asks as he looks at Sjin through spectator view.

“I don’t think he is,” Simon says.

“Oh, you were too slow,” Tom says.

“I didn’t lose because I was slow,” Sjin says as the time to finish the race runs out for him. His next words send blushes to Lewis’ and Carter’s faces, and makes everyone else laugh, “I was distracted by Lewis openly flirting with Carter!”


End file.
